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11 Tips on hiring an IT Consultant

6/30/2014

23 Comments

 
In the last two weeks I had 6 conversations with our current and prospect clients who discussed their challenges when hiring an IT Consultant. There was one clear theme. They all 'interviewed' the submitted Contractor candidates for technical skills, focusing on the technical nuts and bolts. But 5 out of 6 had poor experiences with the performance after the consultant was on-boarded on the project. Does this sound like you?


You've screened them for Technical, Business and Interpersonal skills. But are you done? There are many other steps you should be considering, including

1 - Do you check how many layers of vendors are there between you (the client) and the actual individual who will be performing services for you. I feel the number should be 1 or 2. I've heard some of my clients voice that the number should only be 1, to which I disagree. No one vendor has access to all Consultant resources, and they frequently work with subcontractors with certain niche skill sets. These vendors have invested time and resources into building a realtionship with, and screening from a large pool of subcontractors. So if you believe that the layer number should be only 1, you may be missing out on a larger talent pool available through the vendor's subcontractor network.

2 - Did you do only conduct Phone interview? We've heard stories of "Bait and Switch" i.e. a client interviews a candidate on the phone, hires the candidate, but a different candidate shows up on their first day. I understand that there are issues interviewing candidates who are located on the opposite side of the country. My in my experience, video interviews using free technology like Skype has proven beneficial. You may use Skype video + telephone simulataneously (disable Skype audio, or putting your PC speakers down), to improve the interview experience. There are other 'pay for' solutions available for video interviews. Which one you use is less important than using one.


3 - Did you give them an Online Technical Test - Again, I have heard stories of "Bait and Switch". One candidate takes the online test, and a different candidate shows on their first day. Considering the scenario that the candidate may be located on the opposite side of the country, what are you supposed to do? I personally like interviewing candidates and asking them questions for which there are no online tests. I talk to them about my project, and explain to them one particular issue I may be having. I look for their thought process, mastery of overall subject. I give them points even if the answer to the problem is incorrect, as long as they show their mastery of the subject matter. Why? I feel anyone can Google any question, and find the correct answer. What I am looking for is not the correct syntax for a line of code, but their ability to understand a problem, and then their thought process on their approach to solving the problem
 
4 - There have been some projects where my needs were to screen candidates for the 'syntax'. In this case, Id did a screen share with them - and showed them our code. And them I let them control my PC. What I was looking for was to see how quickly they can grasp the code. Then I asked them for suggestions on improving the code. I felt this process assessed their critical thinking, and problem solving skills.

5 - Where's their immediate family / spouse / children etc. Does their spouse work? What I learnt was most of us are not single and have some attachments to some people in our lives. I've noticed that when you remove people from these attachments, and the distance is large, there is turnover. So this is something I am always curious about

6 - Don't waste time on Reference checks - I feel 7 out of 10 candidates give references of people who will give them good references. So if you want to ask a reference "How were they at their job" expect an answer "Great". While I still see a value of reference checks, but getting accurate references can sometimes be very difficult. Sometimes insisting on this has resulted in me loosing some good candidates, where my competition hired that resource before I could finish reference checks. So if I have a need to check references, and I absolutely can't do without it, I would look at employers/projects where a candidate may have worked, and do my independent investigation on the candidate, calling people from my personal network, rather than relying on a reference provided by a candidate.

7 - Impose minimum wage rate to the actual assigned personnel working on your site. If the vendor tells you a bill rate of $100/hr. but is paying the assigned personnel $25/hr., you can bet that you will not have that candidate working at your site for too long. The candidate will soon find another opportunity that pays them a fair market value. Most consultants are fairly well educated about their market value, but sometimes circumstances lead them to 'accept' your assignment, only to see them leave within a couple of months. So I like to see in my contracts that the assigned personnel is getting paid a fair market value, which could vary between 40% to 80% of the bill rate (depending on layers, and whether you are hiring a Deloitte consultant or an IIT Consultant). I wouldn't impose on vendors a number like 80%, but different vendors have different costs. But sometimes I do ask them about their costs, and what percent of bill rate goes to the assigned personnel. My vendors work hard, and they deserve to make a living, and as long as I get a fair rate, I just want them not to abuse the assigned personnel.

8 - Ask candidates if they have any planned time off / vacations. This area is sometimes overlooked. Imagine hiring a consultant, who has a wedding planned right when you have your major roll out planned.

9 - Honestly identify who you 'really' are - Is  your company a Tier-1 player, Tier-2 player etc... hire a consultant at the same level as you.. Lets say you are Google or Apple, then you can afford to hire a Tier-1 consultant. But if you are not, and want longevity in assigned personnel, get realistic about your expectations. I feel you can hire mediocre people, put them in a good environment with excellent processes, and receive 'superior' work. So invest in your process, culture and environment, and hire personnel that are a good fit. And in many circumstances, superstars are not a good fit in various environments.

10 - Don't hire friends / family / close referrals.. They are hard to fire.. I don't think I need to comment more on this subject

11 - Give interviewed candidate a takeaway question, and ask them to email you back with a response (don't propose a deadline) (see how soon they respond, and look at quality of their written and their analytical skills further)




I am sure there are many other ideas out there, to improve this process further. Do you have one?




23 Comments
ritadukes07 link
7/26/2016 07:47:05 am

Amazing and informative tips. Like it. Very well written and explained. Thanks for sharing a great post.

Reply
Jared Jake link
10/27/2017 09:02:33 am

If you hire an IT consultant then IT company can get benefited from them. But it is really important to hire a good IT consultant and for this you have to follow some important tips so that you can easily able to hire an consultant. First you should check their behavior means how they handle the company and how they treat with their clients. Check their qualification and that that includes their how much experience they have, reputation, strength. Also whether they have necessary knowledge in the IT sector.

Reply
Michael link
12/13/2017 06:26:52 pm

Thank you for explaining how to hire the right IT consultant for your workplace. My boss has asked me to do some research on how we can make our office more productive, and I think that if we could hire a consultant, our internet speeds would be a lot quicker. As you said, you should not waste time looking through their reference list, but you should look to figuring out how good they were at their previous jobs and figuring out what kind of things did they implement. Thanks again for the information, and I think that my boss will like what I have researched.

Reply
zilkerpartners link
6/8/2018 09:52:53 am

hi great post

Reply
jay link
6/15/2018 03:41:22 pm

Problem solving skills are really a must for any kind of consultant, especially an IT consultant. Knowing how to fix a line of code, or improve one could mean lots of money for you. Giving them the opportunity to show you their problem solving skills could be a great metric for finding a good consultant.

Reply
Amanda Drew link
7/31/2018 05:55:31 pm

That seems like a good idea to do an interview with your potential consultant via Skype or another video-based app. It'd also help because you are going to have them work on your IT stuff, and it'd be good to get a measure of how well they work on that. Doing these sorts of things would probably help you find a good IT consultant.

Reply
Hector Uba link
8/10/2018 08:01:20 pm

Thanks for the tips on what you should look for and do when hiring an IT consultant. I agree you really don't want to hire any family or friends even though you may want to help them. In my opinion, family/friends and business should really never be mixed because when something goes wrong, it could ruin the relationship outside of work.

Reply
zilker link
9/28/2018 01:51:06 pm

good site thanks for sharing

Reply
Bram link
11/13/2018 08:03:11 pm

That is a great idea you gave about testing them on understanding your code. Letting them look into it and seeing how fast they understand it could tell you loads about their abilities! I will have to check that out for myself if I ever need to work with an IT consultant.

Reply
zilkerpartners link
1/16/2019 06:44:26 am

hiya thanks for the information

Reply
Gary Puntman link
2/1/2019 02:25:26 pm

I agree that you should do a video interview when hiring an IT consultant. That will help you learn more about the person. That will probably be a lot more helpful than just doing a phone interview.

Reply
zilkerpartners link
2/6/2019 06:43:13 am

hi thanks for the information :)

Reply
Daphne Gilpin link
4/3/2019 11:37:10 am

I like how you said that it's not really worth it to waste time on reference checks because most candidates provide references that they know will speak well of them. At my workplace, there's been talk of hiring an IT consultant so we won't have to spend time resolving the issues. I think the tips you shared will help process of finding and hiring a service go quickly and efficiently.

Reply
computer consulting link
4/5/2019 08:54:03 am

Very informative article. Thanks a lot for sharing.

Reply
Sarah Smith link
4/16/2019 05:01:52 pm

It's interesting that the best way to find a quality IT consultant is to be honest about whether your company is a Tier-1 or Tier-2 player. I didn't realize that there are IT consultants that specialize with each tier of company. That makes me wonder if you can find an IT company that has a specialist for every tier.

Reply
Amy Winters link
5/7/2019 08:34:50 pm

As I was reading your article, you state that when you were hiring an IT consultant, you interviewed them by sharing your screen and code with them. This would be a great way to deduce how well they can grasp your situation and software. You should be able to trust the consultant you hire.

Reply
Sandra Patterson link
5/22/2019 02:38:54 pm

Thank you for your tip about not hiring close family or friends, since that is difficult to hire. My sister has been worried about who she should hire for IT in her startup company, but she also wants to be able to have a good relationship with whoever she hires. My brother has just gotten started in IT, but I will be sure to froward this article to her so that she can have a guide for who she should be hiring.

Reply
it consulting denver link
5/27/2019 06:31:30 am

thanks for the useful posts

Reply
Randy Chorvack link
7/22/2019 10:47:32 am

I like how you said to get realistic with your expectations. It's easy to say you want the best of everything all the time, but it is definitely different when you try to get it. It's good to focus on what you need when hiring an IT consultant.

Reply
Adrian Molly link
9/20/2019 02:04:25 am

Useful tips you shared on this blog. It's a very helpful for IT consultant. I am happy with your blog because I found your website just right for my needs. Thanks for sharing great blog.

Reply
Skyler Williams link
11/6/2019 01:17:38 pm

Thank you for your tip to not do reference checks when you're looking to hire an IT consultant. My brother owns a large corporate company and he needs to outsource his IT support. I'll pass this tip onto my brother so he can find quality IT support.

Reply
jack link
11/11/2019 02:58:01 pm

I found that it was helpful when you suggested to interview a consultant before you decide to hire them. I think this could be an excellent way to determine if they will be right for you, or if you should continue your search. We need to get professional help to help us better manage all of the aspects of our business, and it will be important for us to know that we could trust in who we would choose to hire. When we look for one, I will be sure to consider interviewing them before we choose to hire.

Reply
kate hansen link
12/5/2019 02:42:27 pm

It was really helpful when you said that you could look at past employers. My uncle was at my house for dinner last night and he was telling me about how he was needing to find an IT consultant for his company. I'll make sure to pass this information along to him so he can know what to look for when searching for one.

Reply



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    Dinesh Gulati, Managing Director, IIT Inc.


    About IIT: Since 1995, IIT has been a leading provider of technology 
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